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Sour Cherry Crostata

This beautiful tart features a pastry the Italians call pasta frolla — the texture of the dough is more like cookie dough than traditional French-style pastry. The lattice crust is surprisingly easy to make because it doesn't require weaving the strips.

Special equipment: a 9- by 1-inch fluted round tart pan with removable rim

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Preparation

Make pastry dough:

Beat together butter and 1/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reserve 1 tablespoon beaten egg, chilled, for egg wash and beat remaining egg into butter mixture, then add vanilla, beating well. Reduce speed to low and mix in flour, salt, and zest until mixture just forms a dough.

Halve dough and form each half into a 5- to 6-inch disk. Wrap disks in plastic wrap and chill until firm, at least 30 minutes.

Make filling:

Heat butter in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderate heat until foam subsides, then add fresh or frozen cherries with any juices and sugar and simmer, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. (Cherries will exude juices.) Continue to simmer until cherries are tender but not falling apart, about 8 minutes. Stir together water and cornstarch to form a thick paste, then stir into simmering filling and boil, stirring frequently, 2 minutes. Cool filling quickly by spreading it in a shallow baking pan and chilling until lukewarm, about 15 minutes.

Assemble and bake crostata:

Roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining piece chilled) between 2 sheets of wax paper into a 12-inch round. Remove top sheet of paper and invert dough into tart pan. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch and fold inward, then press against side of pan to reinforce edge. Chill tart shell. Roll out remaining dough in same manner and remove top sheet of paper, then cut dough into 10 (1-inch-wide) strips and slide dough, still on wax paper, onto a baking sheet. Chill strips until firm, about 5 minutes.

Put a foil-lined large baking sheet in middle of oven and preheat oven to 375°F.

Bake crostata in pan on baking sheet in oven until pastry is golden and filling is bubbling, about 1 hour. (If lattice and edges look too brown after 30 minutes, loosely cover with foil.) Cool crostata completely in pan on a rack, 1 1/2 to 2 hours, to allow juices to thicken.

Cooks' note:

·Crostata is best the day it is made but can be made 1 day ahead and kept, covered with foil, at room temperature.

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Recent Reviews

Absolutely delightful dessert when you can get your hands on sour cherries. The presentation is beautiful! I will definitely use other fillings when cherries are not in season. Thanks go to PAULAF11 FROM SALINA, KS, for her excellent tips. My tart pan was 10" and there was plenty of dough, and even though I used only 5c of cherries, the filling still oozed out. Next time I will reduce the sugar (as Paula suggested), since tart is the best thing about tart cherries. The cornstarch was no problem, as I added extra cherry juice before stirring it in. Dough was easy to work with if you don't think of it as pie dough. I rolled each disk inside of a large baggie, kept it cold, and had no problems.

starchgirl from Cleveland /

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I"ve been making
this during cherry
season for several
years, and have made
just a few changes.
I find that 4 C. of
cherries is just the
right amount, and I
decrease the sugar
to 5/8 C. I also
have had trouble
with cornstarch
globs no matter how
vigorously I stirred
the cornstarch and
water before adding
to the cherries, but
solved
the problem by
increasing the water
to 4 Tbsp - the
cornstarch dissolves
fully. I have had
good luck with the
pastry, but on a few
occasions have had
difficulty, as
others have, with it
sticking to the
paper. When this
happens I just keep
returning the dough
to the refrigerator
until it is well
chilled enough to
remove from the
paper without
difficulty. This is
a wonderful dessert.

paulaf11 from Salina, KS /

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I made this for Father's day and it turned out beautifully! I figured out that it works best to loosen the crust from the wax paper on both sides before putting in tart pan. I used cherries from my tree (not sour) and decreased the sugar to 1/2 cup. It could have used the 1/4 cup of sugar that it called for. I will definitely make it again!

1skygirl from Davis, Ca /

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I see from the reviews that the last
time I made this and reviewed it was
in '05, and I've been craving it
ever since! The last few summers,
the birds have had their way with
the cherries on my tree, but this
year I beat them to it and made this
wonderful crostata again. It reminds
me so much of when I lived in Italy
and would attend my nephew's school
functions. The mom's would bring the
most amazing desserts, and the
crostata was my favorite. I adore
this sour cherry version, and as
long as you keep the crust cold,
it's quite easy to work with.

A Cook from Northern Nevada /

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Really, really good! A co-worker brought in some pie cherries, so I made this to share at work. Sturdier than a pie, so good to put out in our break room. Went together easily; chilling the dough well between steps is a must. At first the filling seemed a bit gloppy with so much cornstarch, but turned out fine. Do be sure to mix in the cornstarch/water mixture well into the filling, or you will end up with cornstarch blobs. After blending the cornstarch/water it was really thick, so when it came time to mix into the filling I added several spoonfuls of filling to the cornstarch, stirred it well, then poured back into the rest of the filling. That helped disolve the cornstarch evenly. Will definitely make again. The final product looks gorgeous, and tastes even better.